Naruto: Crimson Maelstrom of Kirigakure
by DarkAhsoka
Summary: AU: Young Jōnin Naruto Uzumaki's life was devastated by the Kyūbi attack, and – lied to, tricked, his mother in a coma - he left Konoha. Now, watch as he rebuilds his clan and family in Kirigakure. Older!Naruto, Uzumakicest, Naruto/Kushina/Karin/OC/Mei
1. Chapter 1: Loss

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any related characters. Those belong to Masashi Kishimoto, and things would be a bit different in the manga if I were him. I make no money off this fanfiction, and merely write for the enjoyment of myself and others.**

_Author's Notes: This story came to me on a night of drunk channel- and internet-surfing. I happened upon an old episode of the Batman Animated Series from the 90s with Mr. Freeze on it, while also re-watching the recent Naruto Shippuden episodes with Kushina and the details of Naruto's birth. The amalgamation of these (you'll understand once you read the first few chapters how the influence came in), together with my somewhat perverted mind, is the result that you see here._

_Be warned, this fic is right now rated T (largely language and violence), but in the future it WILL go up to M for sexual content. Also be warned that this is largely an Uzumakicest fic. In other words, incest, between Naruto and his mother and his sisters (that will be both heterosexual and lesbian relations - so if that also squicks you, please leave, I don't want to offend anyone), will be the main relationship. If you find any of that icky or squicky, I don't hold it against you one bit (everyone's got their own turn-offs), but I suggest that now is the best time to leave._

_The official pairing (no plans to change it either) is Naruto/Kushina/Kasumi/Karin/Mei._

_And this won't be like some of these other "Naruto leaves Konoha" fics where Naruto ends up going back and protecting the folks there who mistreated him, etc.. He'll visit for plot purposes, but they're not in his good books, and he won't be living there.  
_

_Anyway, for those that want to stay and read a hopefully enjoyable tale rather than the PWP stuff that is more common with themes like this; and also for my fellow perverts (all hail Jiraiya-sama!), we begin our tale, which is based all upon one single point of divergence at the beginning (see if you can spot it!) that eventually changes the entire Naruto world as we know it._

_Please read and review!_

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**Chapter 1: Loss**

* * *

_**Konohagakure, Land of Fire**_

The earth shook as the demonic chakra of the Kyūbi no Yokō flared, trying to escape the barrier Minato Namikaze – known as Konoha's Yellow Flash, and more recently as the Yondaime Hokage – had placed around the clearing.

That yellow flash, which gave him his name, appeared at the edge of the inner part of the barrier, and faded to reveal him in his Kage robes, dusty and burned from his fights that evening. One fight with the entity that had found and summoned the Kyūbi, and one with the Kyūbi itself. His blood-streaked blond hair fell forward into his eyes as he stumbled slightly before catching himself.

He slowly set down the barely conscious red-haired woman he was carrying, his eyes fixed on the two children held tightly in her arms – one with hair as red as her own, the other with bright blond hair that showed his own contribution to their genes. He hardly knew her, his wife – Kushina Uzumaki. Sarutobi had, in the interests strengthening alliances, arranged Minato's marriage to the heiress of the Uzumaki clan at the beginning of the Third Shinobi World War.

They had wed in a small and rushed ceremony, having met only a day before the marriage. The alliance with Uzushiogakure – the land ruled by the Uzumaki clan – had helped Konoha survive the devastating war, though at the price of the complete eradication of Uzushiogakure. The Uzumaki were devastatingly powerful Shinobi, and while they had all died (all but the heiress, as far as could be found), they had taken an enormous chunk of the allied Sunagakure, Kumogakure, and Takigakure army with them – enough to allow Konoha to rally, and enough for the Suna-Kumo-Taki Alliance to splinter and fight amongst themselves. That had left Iwagakure as Konoha's only serious threat, and that was where he earned his 'flee-on-sight' classification as Konoha's Yellow Flash.

The war had ended not much more than a year ago, and that was as long as he'd had to get to know his wife, as well as her quiet prodigy of a son. During most of that time she'd been going through a long and difficult pregnancy – especially with twins – which had come to a head the day that the Kyūbi had been unleashed once more upon Konoha.

Minato sadly stroked her red tresses, wishing he'd had more time to get to know her, more time to continue to fall in love with her, but his time was soon to be up. And so was hers, according to the doctor who he had taken her from. The young man had stopped him moments before he left and explained he'd just given her a sedative for the pain, and he didn't think she'd live through the damage she'd taken from giving birth to their two daughters and a large piece of the ceiling of the hospital falling in on her during the Kyūbi attack.

Minato grit his teeth, and knelt down as he began the ritual of the _Shiki Fūjin_ _(Dead Demon Consuming Seal), _having set up the Sealing Altar for their children, where he would seal part of Kyūbi's chakra in each, making them Jinchūriki.

As the Shinigami's terrifying visage appeared behind him, he turned solemnly to where Kushina lay breathing raggedly, clutching the infants to her chest. He reached down and gently pried first their blond-haired daughter, and then the redheaded infant, from her weak grasp as she whispered out a protest.

"M-Min-to…. p-please," she croaked out, her voice hoarse and her eyes barely open, the drugs in her system having nearly knocked her out.

"It'll be alright Kushina-chan," he said gently, ignoring the weak chakra chains that shot from her body, not even strong enough to do anything more than touch the children as he placed them both on the Sealing Altar. "Kasumi-chan and Karin-chan will be okay. Kyūbi's chakra will make sure of it. We're both dying, so I'll seal part of our souls inside with the seals to help guide them." He said as he stretched out his hand, the Shinigami's own ghostly hand following his direction to grasp onto the struggling Kyūbi and yank on its chakra.

'_No_,' Kushina tried weakly to protest, but she the sedative had numbed her mouth and throat, and as it set in she could no longer speak. She knew she wasn't dying. She knew the doctor who had taken over her care when the hospital had been hit, had no idea how to treat an Uzumaki. Her wounds were indeed grievous, but the Uzumaki Clan bloodline awarded those with it with enormous regenerative capabilities – something not shared with many, and thus the doctor's ignorance. It would take a week or more but she could be back on her feet.

As her husband used both hands to begin to seal the Yang half of the Kyūbi's chakra into Kasumi – their blond-haired child – and the Yin half into Karin, Kushina struggled once more to speak, but the drugs were too potent. '_Damn you_,' she thought groggily toward the man who had treated her.

Minato had taken the doctor's word, never having fought alongside his wife or any other Uzumaki to know better or have seen the upper limits of their amazing regeneration – the time they'd spent together had seen her confined to the village and away from Shinobi duties as she became pregnant, her only activities restricted to continuing to train her young son. And now, because of that, because she couldn't stop him, he was going to take her soul from her, and leave their daughters without any parents. All because she'd been too weak.

A tear trickled down her cheek as Minato stretched shifted his hands and grasped her chakra chains, pulling them across her daughter's stomachs where the seal was now visible on each of them, as he completed the sealing ceremony.

"Naruto will take good care of them, Kushi-chan." Minato said, giving a final sad smile. "Make us proud, Kasumi, Karin."

Kushina felt her remaining energy drain from her body, down the chains and into her now crying daughters as the Eight Trigrams Seal flared brightly on Kasumi and Karin's stomachs. Her last thoughts as her mind faded were on her children. '_Please forgive me Kasumi-chan. Forgive me Karin-chan. You're my beautiful babies, and I love you with all my heart. I'm so sorry my _musuko_, my Naruto-kun. Kaa-chan wasn't strong enough for you –take care of your little sisters, they'll need you to be strong for them, with this burden that's been placed on them. Remember what I taught you about family. I love all three of you so much_.'

Moments later, the cruel visage of the Shinigami disappeared with a flash, leaving only the bodies of Kushina Uzumaki and Minato Namikaze surrounding their daughters as they cried from the pain of the sealing and its forceful injection of a Bijū's chakra into their bodies.

The barrier surrounding the clearing, now deprived of its power source of Minato's chakra, failed with a crash, allowing those who had been waiting outside to enter.

One of those was a wizened old man with a graying hair and a small goatee – still dressed in his Shinobi battle armor he'd clad himself in to hold off the Kyūbi until Minato could arrive. Hiruzen Sarutobi walked forward, feeling the weight of the world press further on his shoulders. His successor, the Fourth Hokage, was dead, just as his career was beginning; sacrificed for his village like any Hokage was willing to do.

Now that duty fell once more onto him, Minato's death would force him to retake his role as the Third – Sandaime – Hokage, and deal with the aftermath of the devastation of the Kyūbi, as well as the care for Minato's daughters who he'd sacrificed for the village's sake to be cursed with the burden of being a Jinchūriki.

Sarutobi sighed heavily as his trusted ANBU companions moved forward and checked the body of their leader, and his red-haired wife.

The cat-masked ANBU who checked Kushina looked up at Sarutobi. "She's still alive. Her pulse is weak and she's unconscious, but she's still breathing," he said, just as glowing golden chains – which had disappeared during the sealing – shot out of her unconscious body and slowly entwined themselves around her like a cocoon.

Sarutobi frowned – perhaps he'd misunderstood what Minato had been saying – they'd only been able to hear bits of his conversation with his wife over the furious roars of the Kyūbi. "Take her to the hospital, along with the children. This is to be an S-ranked secret. No one hears about what happened here unless it is from me, understood?"

His ANBU nodded, and the cat-masked ANBU picked up the glowing form of Kushina and leapt off in the direction of Konoha General Hospital. Another ANBU – Rabbit – slowly lifted the crying children from the altar into each arm, and looked once more to Sarutobi before following his comrade, leaving Hiruzen alone to contemplate what he was going to do.

_****__**-oOo-**_

_****__**-oOo-**_

_**Great Western Forest, Land of Fire**_

Uzumaki Naruto pushed off from another tree branch as he and his squad leapt from tree to tree on their return home after over a week away. His dark red shirt rustled in the wind under his green flak vest, the Uzushiogakure swirl dotting its sleeves as well as the backs of the black fingerless gloves he wore.

He sighed to himself, trying to ignore the aches and pains that had developed over the mission – especially the large painful bruise on his back where he'd been hit by a chunk of flying debris. It was great to be headed home. Finally.

He brushed back at his unruly red hair as it dropped into his vision, and had to hide his smile at the thought of seeing his kaa-chan again. He only hoped he'd be there in time to welcome his little sisters into the world. He'd been a bit annoyed that his squad had been deployed so close to his mother's due-date, but that was the life of a ninja. Either way, he either had two imōtos or soon would, and he was overjoyed at that prospect.

His eyes drifted to the side, lighting upon his teammates. All of them were at least twice his own age of nine, and while that had caused some chafing and dissent amongst some of the other Jōnin in the village, the groups he'd been paired with thus far had not seemed to have a problem that one of their fellow Jōnin was so much younger than them.

Naruto was considered a genius – a Shinobi prodigy – much like Hatake Kakashi who had already paved the way for the general atmosphere of acceptance toward such a young Shinobi. The ANBU Black Ops had a lower age limit of 10 years old to join, though none had ever joined so young – Kakashi had thus far been youngest, joining at age 13. Naruto seemed ready to break that record, as several ANBU captains had brought him in this year for conversations about joining as soon as he turned 10.

When he _did_ get the offer, he knew he would leap at it. There was nothing he wouldn't do to make his kaa-chan proud of him.

_**-oOo-**_

He'd been born to Kushina Uzumaki nine years ago, when his mother was a young ninja – only fifteen years of age. She'd fallen in love with her squadmate in Uzushiogakure, a second cousin named Hideki Uzumaki, and things had progressed a bit quicker than they'd planned. Naruto had never been able to know his father, though, as tragedy struck just months after his conception when both of Kushina's squadmates were killed on a mission.

Naruto had lived for five years in their village of Uzushiogakure, already training at the age of four with his mother who had by that time become a feared Jōnin in the Uzu ranks. It was then that the Third Shinobi World War had broken out, and the Shiokage – leader of Uzushiogakure, and Naruto's grandfather – had chosen to marry Kushina off to a Konoha-nin to shore up their peace treaty that had been on shaky ground since Mito Uzumaki's sudden and unexpected death years before in Konoha.

Forced to move to a strange new village with his mother, during the middle of the war, had been a difficult endeavor. Especially when word came that Uzushiogakure had been destroyed, despite the best efforts. Naruto had served in the front line in the last year of the war as a Chūnin, and it was there he had earned the promotion to Jōnin as the war ended a year ago.

That had led to the next trying experience in their lives, as he and his mother moved in with Minato Namikaze – now the Fourth Hokage. Naruto didn't hate the blond-haired man – hell, he was happy that his mother's arranged marriage had been with the kind-hearted Shinobi rather than the much worse alternatives.

He did resent Minato at the beginning, especially right after the marriage, for what he viewed as the man trying to take the attention of his kaa-chan away from him. But Minato had quickly realized the problem, and reassured him that he didn't want to steal Kushina away from her son, and that he knew he'd never be Naruto's true father, but hoped they could become friends.

It was Kushina telling Naruto that he would soon have a sibling – and taking him with her to see the sonogram of his little sisters – that had finally broken the ice completely between him and Minato, and he would always be grateful to the man for giving him siblings.

_**-oOo-**_

Naruto shook his head from his thoughts on the past, and turned to the present and began mentally writing the mission report he would submit. This was his third time out as squad leader of a Jōnin team, and had been the rockiest mission yet. They'd left well over a week ago to deliver top-secret documents to the Kazekage. He had no idea what the contents were, but assumed they had something to do with the peace treaty/alliance that had been struck between Sunagakure and Konohagakure at the end of the war. It had been somewhat difficult being in that village and keeping himself from lashing out at the people who had played a role in destroying his home, but he had a job to do and he had done it without complaint.

That part of the trip had gone off without a hitch, and only taken a little over three days to get there and deliver the papers– it was the returning that had been the trouble. On their way back they had been attacked by a group of rogue ninja – one of many that existed these days made up of Shinobi and fighters who had left their villages or become disenchanted with their causes during the war and banded together to live away from the Five Nations. Many had turned into little more than highway robbers or mercenaries, and it had been the former that they had met up with.

He and his squad had led the much larger force on a running fight across the forests of the Land of Rivers for several days before they were able to whittle them down enough to defeat them completely. His injuries were minor, but Haruka – a brown-haired woman in her early thirties – had broken her leg, and others had suffered varying levels of lesser injuries. That had slowed down their return, making it nearly a week since they'd left Sunagakure.

Naruto caught sight of a somewhat familiar tree – an oak that had been knocked over into a neighbor but continued to grow until the two had merged together, forming an arch underneath their trunks. That told him they were nearing the village, and the others quickly caught on as well, their attitude becoming much more upbeat than the weary silence they'd traveled in for the last few days.

Yoshi, a tall, dark-haired man who was twice Naruto's age, was in the front of their traveling formation, and Naruto frowned as he stumbled to a stop on a tree branch ahead of them. Naruto's hand dropped to fish out a kunai from the pouch he carried them in, when he heard Yoshi gasp.

Naruto pushed off hard from the next branch and landed nimbly next to Yoshi as their third member, Takumo – who had Haruka's arm slung over his shoulder – landed moments later.

"What the fuck?" Naruto muttered – while he hadn't inherited his mother's verbal tic of dropping a 'ttebayo or 'ttebane at the end of sentences, he'd certainly inherited her dirty mouth - even as similar expressions spilled from his companion's lips.

In front of them was utter devastation. Where once had been thick lush forest, now only splintered and burnt trunks littered the ground at the edge of what appeared to be a half-mile wide _crater_. The center was completely scoured, even the topsoil was gone, leaving only the bedrock, which normally rested several dozen feet below the surface in this area.

"What could have done this?" Yoshi asked quietly, stunned at the sheer scale of destruction.

Naruto's grip tightened on the kunai he'd drawn, and then looked over at his older teammates, his face grim and a knot growing in his stomach. "I don't know, but whatever did it, it's close to the village – it may be under attack right now. We need to double-time it. Haruka?" He asked, looking to the injured woman. "Can you handle it?"

"_Hai, _Naruto-_taichō. _I'm with you," she said, visibly biting back on the pain from her splinted leg.

Naruto's fingers itched to reach upward and grasp the handle of the long Uzumaki clan katana on his back for reassurance- his mother had gifted it to him upon his becoming a Jōnin – but he had to remain strong, keep his composure for his squad so that his own growing unease didn't spread to them.

His gaze turned in the direction of the village, still hidden by the trees on the other side of the crater, and he could see small plumes of smoke rising above the tree line. "Delta formation, and keep alert." He ordered tersely as he dashed across the edge of the crater and back into the forest on the other side, his squad following him, spread out and staggered in a crescent-shaped formation to prevent any one hit from taking out the entire team.

Minutes later they reached the edge of the forest, near the Hokage Memorial, and were confronted by more devastation. Large patches of the city were gone, either smoking in some places, or lying in rubble in others. There were no real sounds of fighting, and as he neared, he saw that the smoke plumes were villagers burning wood and other rubble.

They landed in front of the Eastern Gate, and were immediately confronted by a squad of tense Chūnin who demanded their identification and mission papers. Naruto's eyes fell upon one of the Chūnin he recognized, and handed him their documents. "What happened here, Jin-san?"

The heavy-set man looked up from their papers, and his jaw set. "Damn, you ain't heard?"

Naruto shook his head, "We've been out of contact with anyone but bandits for a week. Last people we talked to were in Suna."

Jin shook his head grimly. "Musta left right before the messenger birds got there. The Kyūbi attacked the village a week ago."

Naruto's gaze widened – that certainly explained the crater. From what he'd read, a Tailed Beast Ball could do that sort of damage, and the sort of damage he'd seen from above the village on their way in.

Jin sighed. "The Hokage's been waiting for you to check in, wants you to report to him immediately. Rest of your team can head in and get debriefed at Jōnin Command.

The knot in the pit of Naruto's stomach suddenly grew into an icy hand gripping at him. '_Why does Minato want to see me right away?_' He wondered as he nodded to the Chūnin who let the team pass through the gate.

He turned to his team. "Yoshi, Takumo, get Haruka to the Hospital and then report to the command center. I'll go see what Hokage-sama wants."

They nodded, and he disappeared in a swirl of mist as he _shunshined_ to a roof near the Hokage Tower, and leapt toward it, the uneasy feeling growing with each step he took.

_**-oOo-**_

_**-oOo-**_

_**Hokage Tower, Land of Fire**_

Hiruzen Sarutobi sat behind the desk he'd - just over a year before - expected to never sit behind again, and rubbed his head as the ANBU reporting Uzumaki Naruto's arrival in the village disappeared from the room. It was always difficult to break terrible news to someone, especially one so young… but what he had to do in addition to that weighed heavily on his conscience.

To tell the boy his mother lay in an irreversible coma, and his stepfather died saving the village was bad enough, but to lie to him about his sisters….

Hiruzen had spent the first three days after the Kyūbi attack juggling the rescue and recovery efforts as they dug people – both living and dead – from the wreckage left by Kyūbi, and spending his time with the Councils, both Shinobi and Civilian.

They had been left with the quandary of what to do with the two young Jinchūriki they'd been 'gifted' with. Many, knowing how Kyūbi had disappeared for years upon Mito Uzumaki's death, called for a 'mercy killing' of the children. Whether they had that as their real reason, or wanted revenge for deaths of loved ones, was hard to know, but fortunately somewhat cooler minds had prevailed.

As much as he wished it at times, this wasn't a dictatorship like in Iwa – that had been something the First Hokage had made sure of when he'd started the village all those years ago. The Hokage didn't have supreme authority over everyone, and the civilians had a great deal of power and influence – largely over civilian matters – as did the other Shinobi. As the young girls were - by definition - civilians, they had a large say in her fate.

Eventually, it had boiled down to – who would care for the girls, and what was best for the village in that decision. Minato's death had awoken a large amount of distrust toward Kushina and her son that had been hidden in his presence out of respect for their leader, a distrust of the foreign ninja and their loyalties. Most felt that the son – Naruto – was not only too young to care for even child let alone two, but also too unpredictable, too much of a loose cannon, to do so.

Sarutobi had found himself reluctantly agreeing. While the boy was a genius, an outright prodigy, his rather short career thus far had shown a recklessness, and unpredictability in the boy – taking risks that, while he usually came out on top, were very dangerous in reality. He really didn't want to risk a child in his care when he found out about his mother – who most that knew the Uzumaki knew what she was the center of his world.

His loyalties were a bit less worrisome, but Hiruzen knew the boy was still extremely proud of his birthplace, and didn't yet consider Konoha his true home. The Uzushio swirls plastered across his clothing – to a point where it was almost overkill – were testament to that. In the end, they'd decided it was best if the boy thought his sisters dead, and they be raised outside of clan influence – another topic of much debate the last few days – in an orphanage.

Hiruzen frowned, stroking his goatee, and looked up at the sound of a knock on the doors of the office. "Come!" He called, schooling his features.

The doors swung open, and a very battle-worn Naruto Uzumaki stepped in, his face streaked with dirt and a smear of blood, his clothes tattered in places.

He froze in mid-step when he saw who was sitting at the desk, and a look of concerned confusion passed over his face. "Ojii-sama? What are you doing here? Where's Minato?"

Hiruzen sighed, and gestured toward a chair. "Please, sit down Naruto-kun."

Naruto moved over to the chair, sitting down as he stared warily at the older man.

"Naruto…" Hiruzen began. "I don't know what you've been told so far, but the Kyūbi attacked the village a week ago. I'm sure you've already seen some of the destruction."

Naruto nodded. "We saw a crater a few miles outside the village. That was the Kyūbi, then?"

"That one was Minato's doing. He… somehow he teleported one of the Kyūbi's Tailed Beast Balls, and saved much of the village, as well as our monument. Unfortunately he couldn't save everyone, and many hundreds have died." Hiruzen smiled sadly at Naruto. "Minato saved so many, and defeated the Kyūbi… but at the cost of his own life, sealing the Kyūbi away into the death god Shinigami."

Naruto sat back, eyes wide with shock that the man he had started to become friends with – the man who was so powerful he outclassed Naruto's current level, which was impressive on its own, many times over – was dead.

"That's why you're here – you've taken back your old position," Naruto said slowly, his voice slightly betraying just how shaken he was by the news of Minato's death.

Naruto's head snapped up a moment later, realizing this would hurt his mother even more. "Kaa-chan – May I have leave to go to her, Hokage-sama?" Naruto asked, his muscles straining to keep himself from breaking decorum and dashing from the room.

Hiruzen's sad sigh made his stomach clench further. "I'm sorry, Naruto, but, your mother went into labor the night of the Kyūbi's attack. It was a trying birth, and she was injured severely when part of the hospital was hit. She's in a coma… and the doctors don't believe she'll come out. They think it's permanent."

"Wh-what?" Naruto managed to choke out, tears visible in his eyes as his face turned white. "Kaa-chan? You- you're lying, she's alright, she _has _to be alright," Naruto said, standing shakily.

"Naruto, I wish I could tell you it isn't true, but it is." Sarutobi said, standing as well, moving over to rest a hand on the boy's shoulder, bracing himself for what he knew was coming next.

"What about the babies?" Naruto asked in a voice that seemed a million miles distant.

"The babies – your sisters – they didn't survive. I'm very sorry, Naruto-kun." Hiruzen said, closing his own eyes at the lie.

Naruto stood there, his head bowed, his wind-swept red hair draping across his features as his shoulders shook almost imperceptibly for several minutes. Finally he spoke in a low, emotionless voice. "Hokage-sama, may I go to be with my mother? I'll turn in the mission report tomorrow… I need to be with her."

"Of course. I'll take you off the active roster for as long as you need, Naruto-kun. Go be with her, and talk to the doctors. There are some important decisions that will need to be made soon for her, so take your time," Sarutobi said softly.

Naruto nodded, and then slowly walked out of the room, stopping only once as Sarutobi called out after him.

"If you need anyone to talk to… my door is open, and I know your comrades will be more than willing to help you through this." Sarutobi said softly, and then watched Naruto nod once more and leave the room silently.

He walked back to the desk, feeling every year of his age as he reached for the hidden bottle of sake in one of the desk drawers, and took a long sip. He only hoped he hadn't made things worse than the possible alternatives with this decision – not that he'd really had any choice in this particular matter.

_**-oOo-**_

_**-oOo-**_

_**Konohagakure, Land of Fire**_

As a stoic-faced Naruto entered the hospital, he nearly ran into Haruka, who was hobbling on her way out, her leg in a cast as she used crutches.

"Hey, _taichō, _come to visit me already? I only just got patched up," she said brightly.

He tried, and failed to smile. "Sorry, Haruka-san, but you weren't the reason for my visit."

The older woman mock-pouted. "That hurts, _taichō_," she said, reaching up to touch her chest. "That's just not nice. So what're you here for? Did that _Doton_ from their leader that hit you in the back do more than you were telling us?"

Naruto shook his head. "My mother," he said softly. "She was injured in the attack."

Haruka's face became serious, and she put a hand on his shoulder. "Well then, I won't keep you. Sorry for teasing you like that."

"It's alright, Haruka-san," he said, his voice weary. "Get better soon."

Naruto ran a hand through his red hair as he continued down the hall past his teammate, into the direction of the intensive care unit. He'd come to know the hospital pretty well, visiting several times with Kushina at her regular checkups, and visiting her when she volunteered during the last few months of her pregnancy at one of the reception desks - unable to do any serious physical activities and bored out of her mind if she wasn't keeping active in some way.

Naruto ignored the call of one of the receptionists as he strode past her toward the ward where he knew his kaa-chan was. She _had_ to be okay. She was the only thing he had left, the only thing he truly cared about in this world – with his _imōto_sdead there was no one else but her – the doctors _had _to be wrong.

He reached the section he'd been looking for, and caught sight of his mother's red hair on one of the beds, as a nurse closed a curtain around her bed, and moved on to the next partition.

As his hand reached for the curtain, it seemed she noticed him, and called out with a biting voice. "Young man, you don't have permission to be here. This is the ICU, and I can't have little boys running around here," she said, making to slap his hand away from the curtain.

His own hand moved in a flash, and gripped her wrist so tightly her hand turned a sickly white. "My _mother_ is in there, civilian-san," he said, turning his head so the glint of his Konoha headband caught her eye. "Unless you'd like to try stopping me, I'm going in see her."

"O-of course, sir, I'm sorry, I didn't realize. I'll let her attending doctor know you're here, and he'll talk to you when you're done." The woman said, shaking like a leaf.

Naruto released her hand, snorting in anger, and shoved the woman's presence from his mind as he stepped through the curtain, and caught sight of his kaa-chan once more.

She lay serenely on the bed, her long red hair spread out on the sheets around her. Wires and other devices were hooked up to her chest and arms under her hospital gown, and an IV was attached to her arm. He could see the fading hints of injuries on her face, and a quick glance at her chart showed her entire abdomen was bandaged, but what had been an injury from falling rubble was already healing, broken ribs setting into merely cracked ribs, pierced organs now almost completely back to normal, a compound fracture to her leg now little more than a healed line on an x-ray.

"Kaa-chan," Naruto whispered, a hint of desperation in his voice, as he reached up to rest his hand on her warm cheek.

"Please, kaa-chan, you can't leave me," he said, tears now streaming down his cheeks as he reached down and gripped her hand tightly, staring desperately at her with an anguished look in the stormy blue-gray eyes he'd inherited from her. He let his head sink down, and rested his face on her arm, hating himself for not having been here, not protecting her and his sisters like he should have.

Long minutes passed with no movement from Naruto, other than softly call to Kushina as he prayed for a reaction. Finally, a throat cleared behind him from the entrance to her curtained off room. Naruto stayed as he was for a few moments to collect himself, and then looked toward the intruder.

A tired-looking older woman wearing a doctor's white coat was standing there, his mother's chart in her hands. "You are her next of kin – Uzumaki Naruto?" she asked softly.

Naruto nodded slowly. "How is she?"

The doctor shook her head sadly. "Not well, I'm afraid. We aren't sure the exact cause, but while her body is healthy and recovering from injuries she sustained in the attack at an amazing rate, we can't detect any higher-level brainwaves. There's just enough of her brain active to keep her breathing, and her heart beating, and her body working, but no sign of any consciousness. It's like her mind is gone. I'm sorry, but we aren't sure there's anything that can be done for her…"

Naruto's gaze hardened. "There has to be something. She's an Uzumaki, and we have very strong regenerative abilities. She'll come back," he said, steely resolve in his voice. "Keep caring for her, and you'll see."

The doctor hid a cringe at his stubbornness, but knew it was best to let him work through his emotions rather than continue with the discussion right now. "Perhaps. We'll continue to observe her, and hope for the best. Perhaps in a week we can meet again and talk about options if there is no change?"

Naruto's eyes narrowed, but he bit back his initial response. "Fine," he muttered.

The doctor smiled sympathetically. "I'll go now, and let you be with her. Visiting hours are over in thirty minutes."

Naruto nodded, and the doctor leaving the room barely registered as he returned his gaze to the unconscious redhead on the bed. He grabbed one of her hands in both of his, and kissed the knuckles softly. "You'll get better, kaa-chan, or I'll find a way to bring you back to me. I love you," he whispered, before burying his face against her hospital gown, clutching her tightly.

_**-oOo-**_

_**-oOo-**_

_**One Week Later – Konohagakure, Land of Fire**_

It had been a long week, marked with hundreds of funerals. The one that had received the most attendance had been, of course, the funeral of Minato Namikaze, the Fourth Hokage. Everyone in the village had turned out for the sad event.

It had hurt Naruto even more when he found out that his sisters had been killed with a dozen other babies when an inferno had swept through the nursery ward, leaving little for those families – and him – to bury. A jar of ashes taken from the general location was all they had, and their names were transcribed on the civilian memorial with the others. He'd literally spent hours each day tracing his fingers over their names carved into the wall – it was all he had of Karin and Kasumi, the sisters he'd come to love but had never even been able to see.

When Naruto wasn't at the cemetery, he was usually either at his mother's side in the hospital, or in the darkened home their family had lived in.

That first night, after he'd been kicked out at the end of visiting hours, had set his routine for him, curling up in the master bedroom on his mother's side of the bed, sleeping fitfully and wracked with nightmares. It was only the visits of his teammates, or of Kakashi and Rin – who'd been students of Minato's – or the Hokage, that reminded him to even eat. During the day, when not visiting the graves of his sisters or stepfather, and when not at the hospital, he spent his time feverishly going through medical scrolls and books in their house and at the Konoha Library.

The talk with the doctor had come and gone the previous day, with him paying little mind to her suggestions that it was time to think about 'alternate care', or 'letting her go'. He'd wanted to throttle the woman at the first statement, as he'd heard whispers from the nurses during his visits saying much the same, talking about 'freeing up a bed'. That's all she was to them – another body in a bed, taking up space – and not the beautiful, loving and caring woman who meant everything to him.

It was the day after the talk that things first began to go downhill. His visit to his mother at the start of the day went by normal enough – he usually came in at the very beginning of visiting hours when few were around. It was later, when he was about to leave, that a discussion by several doctors outside the curtained off 'room' caught his attention, with the mention of the name 'Kushina'.

He stood from the side of the bed, and walked silently over to stand next to the curtain as the group of doctors, apparently unaware he was there visiting, discussed his mother.

"It's really hopeless," a female's voice said. "I've seen cases like hers plenty of times in the past. Their family keeps them alive for years, but they never wake up. She has absolutely no higher order brain functions, and we haven't even seen a hint of them possibly coming back. She's basically brain-dead."

"I know," said another, a nasally male voice. "But her kid needs some closure. We just need to give him a bit more time to realize she's not coming back, and he'll make the right choice to pull the plug."

There was a snort from a third person as several more muttered quiet agreements. "I don't care. We shouldn't have to waste resources and time like this for that little Uzushio brat to realize what everyone else already has. I've already requested permission from the Hokage to move forward in letting her die in peace. The Yondaime deserves to be buried with his wife, instead of having her rotting away in a hospital room because her delusional kid thinks mommy is going to come back. You've all heard about him – he's not exactly the most stable person anyways. I can hardly count the number of times I've had to patch up his teammates after his reckless stunts. We need to put her out of her misery and let the kid deal with-"

The doctor, a short, and stocky man with a long goatee, froze as he felt a sharp point dig into his back.

"Touch her, and you _will_ die," a frighteningly cold and hard voice came from behind him as Killing Intent spiked through the air, making everyone in the area shake in fear at the oppressive feeling.

The man turned slowly and found himself shaking even harder as he looked into the gray-blue eyes of the boy he'd just been talking about. The look in them promised death, and seemed to stare straight through to his soul as the kunai tip that had been at his back now pressed into his stomach.

"B-boy, p-put the weapon away. I'm just telling the truth," the doctor said shakily.

"Touch her and you will die," Naruto repeated, and it didn't even sound like a threat, but more a matter-of-fact statement – the boy was completely serious.

"Y-you can't, you can't harm civilians." The doctor said, gaining a bit of courage as Naruto slid the kunai back into its pouch. "I'm sorry, boy, but you have to accept that your mother is gone – dead. She's not coming back. By the end of the week, we'll have met our responsibilities, and while you may be a Shinobi, you're not an adult and have no say in her treatment. The Board, along with the Hokage's approval, will decide how things go."

Naruto's eyes widened fractionally, and then he turned abruptly and began to stride away. "Remember my warning," he called out to the man, as he headed toward the Hokage Tower.

**-oOo-**

"I'm sorry Naruto, but you need to see this from their point of view," Sarutobi said, sadly. "We have some of the best doctors in the world working here, and they don't believe there is any hopeful prognosis for your mother. I agree that the doctor you told me about was out of line, but he was also telling the truth about our Village's laws. At the end of the week, if there's still no change, they will bring this before the Board, and then to me."

Naruto looked up at him with nearly impassive eyes, though Sarutobi could see hints of the pain in them. "Then tell them to keep her alive. Please, Hokage-sama… she's…."

"I know, Naruto-kun. You care for her greatly. But do you think she'd want to go on like this? Kept in a bed, in the hopes that a miracle will occur? Kushina wouldn't want you to let this tear you apart like you've been doing, Naruto. She'd want to rest, in peace, and for you to continue living and making her proud." Sarutobi said.

While he'd hated lying to the boy earlier, this time he hated having to tell him the truth. He'd even had one of his Shinobi contact Tsunade, the legendary medic. When she'd been told the particulars, and given a copy of Kushina's file, she'd sent the messenger back, stating that while Shinobi medicine could do a lot, this was not something they could solve and that there was little chance of any meaningful recovery.

"You know this is a Shinobi village, Naruto," a gravelly voice came from behind him. "We must make the hard choices every day of our lives, and we need the medical supplies that are being used right now in the wake of the Kyūbi's attack."

Naruto turned his head slightly to acknowledge the entrance of the Hokage's advisors, who he had known were listening in from an adjoining room. His eyes narrowed at the sight of Danzō, who had spoken.

"And if it were your mother, Danzō-sama?" Naruto asked.

"I would struggle the same, but let her go. The people deserve the closure, as does your mother, as do you." Danzō said fixing Naruto with a hard gaze from his single brown eye – the other hidden under a bandage wrap from some unknown injury that he'd had since before Naruto had come to the village.

"So, kill her because the people want her to be buried next to Minato-sama?" Naruto asked heatedly.

Danzō raised both hands, and waved them impatiently. "No, let her body chose to go where her spirit already has. If there was any hope that she would recover I would be the first to support you. This village needs strong Shinobi, _especially_ now, and your mother was among the strongest we had. But now, that burden and legacy has been passed to you. It is up to you how you deal with it now."

Naruto gazed at the floor. 'Snake-tongued bastard' he thought angrily. 'He only cares about the village. That's all any of them care about. No one cares about kaa-chan… except for me. They care only for the village, and not for family. Kaa-chan always told me – _Family First_.' He froze slightly as an idea sparked in his mind. 'I'd have to be careful, but it _could_ work.'

Finally Naruto looked up, gazing at the Hokage, and ignoring his advisors. "Give her until the end of the week, not sooner like that doctor was trying to push. Let me… say goodbye…" He said quietly.

Sarutobi inclined his head. "Of course, Naruto-kun," he said.

Naruto bowed slightly toward his superior, they watched as he left the room, his gaze downcast.

"Do you think he'll give her up, at the end of the week?" Homura murmured to Sarutobi and his fellow elders.

Sarutobi sighed. "I hope so. He can be hot-headed, but perhaps we've reached him." He shook his head. "While I still somewhat agree with our decision with his sister, I cannot help but wonder if he'd be clinging to his mother this much if we'd told him the truth."

Danzō shrugged slightly. "Perhaps. But equally likely he'd be even more stubborn about this, not wanting his sister to grow up without a mother. Besides, we agreed this was for the best of the village."

Sarutobi nodded slowly. If only the chill that appeared for a moment on his spine didn't make him feel that perhaps they were wrong…

_**-oOo-**_

_**-oOo-**_

_**Five Days Later - Great Western Forest, Land of Fire**_

Naruto leapt to the side as a kunai whistled past his head and slammed into a tree branch. "Damn it," he muttered, shifting his grip on Kushina's unconscious form so he didn't drop her as he pushed off a tree trunk to escape the paper bomb that had been attached to the kunai.

Bits of wood pattered against his clothing as he left the radius of the explosion. He'd figured he'd be followed the moment he'd taken Kushina from the hospital but this was much sooner than he'd thought they'd catch up. They must have set up some sort of watch over the hospital.

He'd spent the last thirty minutes trying to outrun this silent group of ANBU, but the addition of his mother's weight as well as their persistence was tiring him quickly.

He saw a clearing ahead, and leapt far across to the other side, placing his mother's body down. He pulled his katana from its sheath with a whisper of metal on leather, and leapt forward to meet his attackers.

He held the handle loosely as he moved his hand through a series of short handsigns. "_Suiton: Mizu no Muchi_ (Water Style: Whip of Water)", he muttered as the moisture surrounding his left hand coalesced into a thin whip nearly 8 feet in length.

He shifted the full weight of the katana into his right hand, and slid a foot forward, into one of the Uzumaki starting stances for double-weapon fighting.

He caught the first ANBU off-guard – they hadn't expected him to suddenly stop fleeing – and managed to snap the whip around the man's legs, the high-pressure water cutting harshly into his skin as Naruto gave it a yank, pulling the man forward onto his blade, unable to change his momentum in mid-air.

The man gave a gurgle as Naruto let his body slide of the blade, and he got his first good look at the mask. "_ROOT_. I should have known, Danzō would be watching." He said.

The other three ANBU kept their distance, landing on each side of him, encircling him to keep him from escaping. They were about to leap forward and attack when a soft clearing of the throat echoed across the clearing. Naruto froze when he realized it had come from where he'd left Kushina, and then his head snapped toward the sound, to find the imposing form of Danzō standing over her.

"You masked your presence so well I didn't sense you," Naruto said, his muscles tensed. "I'm impressed, Danzō-sama. I'd thought perhaps civilian life had dulled your skills."

Danzō bent down, and grabbed Kushina's body, scooping her up with his right arm. "You flatter me, Uzumaki-san. I must compliment you as well. Few have lasted so long against my ROOT ANBU. I'm disappointed, though, that you chose to run from the village. I'd thought we'd gotten through to you. This woman," he said, shaking Kushina, as her head lolled back, her long red hair whipping around. He ignored a loud, almost feral growl from Naruto.

"She's gone." Danzō said. "There's no hope in reviving her. You could have become a great ninja and made her proud – honored her memory. Instead you clung to a dead woman, and decided to run. Did you really think you would get away? This woman and yourself represent the last of the Uzumaki clan. There are so many secrets waiting to be found in her body, and you could have been such a valuable asset. Konoha doesn't permit such treasures to leave so that others may gain them. You've chosen to become a _missing-nin_, and now you must pay the price," he finished, nodding to his ROOT, who moved slowly closer to the younger ninja.

Naruto smirked slightly. "That's where you're wrong, Danzō. I cannot become a _missing-nin_ of a village that I was never part of. Look at the records, and you'll see. I was never legally a Konoha-nin. My mother and I came to the village during the turmoil of the war, and my paperwork was overlooked. I was, and still am, a Shinobi – the last Shinobi – of Uzushiogakure." Naruto said, tapping his _hitai-ate_, which Danzō realized didn't contain the leaf symbol, but rather the Uzushio swirl of the now-dead village he and his mother had come from.

Danzō's eyes widened slightly, and then hardened. "It is of no consequence, if none find your body. Take him."

As the three ROOT ninja leapt at him, mere feet away, he crossed the fingers of both hands into a hand-seal. "Who said we were here for you to take? _Bunshin Bōdaina Bakuhatsu (Clone Enormous Explosion)!_"

His body, and that of his mother, erupted into huge explosive balls of fire, incinerating the ROOT ninja, and blasting back the injured body of Danzō who'd attempted a _Shunshin_ as the explosion began.

"How," Danzō gasped weakly as pain erupted from his now-missing and cauterized right arm, and his badly broken leg. '_How did that little bastard fool us? I checked his chakra levels before I revealed myself, to ensure it wasn't a clone. Was he able to pump that much power into a Shadow Clone? How….'_ were Danzō's last thoughts before he slipped into unconsciousness.

_**-oOo-**_

_**Valley of the End, Land of Fire**_

Miles away, at the Valley of the End, at the edges of the borders of the Land of Fire, a wide grin spread over the real Naruto's face as the memories of the clones washed over him.

It had been a risky gamble, but it had paid off. He had, in reality, left nearly a day before, smuggled out along with his mother in the bed of the wagon of a wandering merchant who had owed the Uzumaki Clan for saving his life during the Third War. Chakra-suppression seals on the wagon bed had prevented detection by the Chūnin guards as they left the village walls.

What he'd left behind, were clones of his own creation – something he'd been working on for several years, ever since his mother had taught him the _Kage Bunshin Jutsu_ – a Jutsu that only a person with chakra reserves on par with an Uzumaki could use to its full potential.

He'd used a mix of storage seals and slow-release seals to pump chakra into the clones' bodies over the last several days, feeding them enough to keep them going without popping away on their own, and keeping enough in their bodies to make it appear as if they were the real deal – the main weakness of the Shadow Clone Jutsu was the fact that if someone knew the person's normal chakra amount, they'd be able – if they were good sensors – to know if the person recently used the jutsu, as it evenly divided the user's existing chakra. Without the seals there would have been the chance that someone would have suspected something was up.

As it was, the distraction a day after his actual escape had turned out perfectly. He had no doubt that Danzō had survived, but it was satisfying knowing he'd got in a good blow to the man, and bought himself plenty of time for his real escape.

Naruto looked down at his mother's serene face, readjusting his grip on her body. He pressed a cheek to her forehead, and took comfort in her presence. "Sarutobi was right, Konoha has some of the best doctors in the world. But only some. I'll find someone – some way, to help you, Kaa-chan"

He shifted the large scroll on his back that contained the few remaining belongings of the Uzumaki clan, including all of their jutsu scrolls, and Fūinjutsu instructional materials – their clan secrets. With them, and hopefully with help, he'd find a way.

He took one last glance back at the land that had given them shelter for many years. The land that had also taken so much away – his sisters, his stepfather, his mother's consciousness. "We'll find a new home, kaa-chan, one that cares more about family than about a village, and we'll rebuild our Clan there. Goodbye Karin-chan and Kasumi-chan, goodbye _keifu-san_." He said softly, before somberly turning from the Land of Fire, and walking across the border, toward their future.

_**-oOo-**_

_**-oOo-**_

_**-oOo-**_

* * *

_**A/N: **__Well, hope you guys enjoyed the chapter. To those that for whatever reason did not catch it, the point of divergence that set things off on this trail was the early, unexpected death of Mito Uzumaki (more on that in the future). Her death took the Kyūbi with her, causing it to take years to reform itself, and thus Kushina was never sent or requested to be a Jinchūriki, and instead remained for years in Uzushiogakure, leading to the things we see here._

_Hope you all are interested in the story now, next chapter will be a large time-jump to ~12 years in the future, but don't worry, future chapters will explore what Naruto has been up to in the intervening years, through flashbacks and dialogue._

_On a side note, Karin is an Uzumaki! Woohooo! I'd theorized as much since I first saw her character (red hair, temper, enormous chakra reserves to be able to do her heal-bite thing, etc.), but it's nice to see one of the recent Manga issues confirm it for me (and yes, the Karin in this story will be a slightly modified version of that Karin – doesn't exactly fit with the point of divergence being able to cause it, but I couldn't resist, she's one of my faves)._

_I haven't really determined any sort of update schedule, but perhaps I should to keep me structured. I'll think about it, but it shouldn't be more than one or two weeks between each chapter unless things are really crazy at school/work.  
_

_Anyway, please review, let me know what you thought. Constructive criticism is welcome, but please no flames – they only make us authors angry, and do nothing to help us improve our work. _

_**Translations **__(most of you probably already know at least some of them as you're reading Naruto fanfiction, but just to cover bases, as well as some of the lesser-known ones):_

_**-chan/-kun**__ – Female/male familiar honorific (though chan can be used for males, usually only very young ones or in teasing), usually friends or family for older people, and used by adults toward kids._

_**-san**__ – most common honorific, usually among equals or toward those of lower stature_

_**-sama**__ – more respectful honorific, used toward those of higher stature or authority, or sometimes age_

_**Imōto –**__ Younger Sister_

_**Kaa-chan**__ – Mother (more affectionate form, otherwise kaa-san)_

_**Keifu**__ – Stepfather_

_**Musuko**__ – Son_

_**Taichō**__ – Captain_

* * *

_**o.O.o**_

_**P.S**. - I've gotten a few reviews wanting me to change things so that Kushina wasn't with another man, and that Naruto is Minato's son and that canon is followed there. I hadn't realized that would even be a point of contention (and to me, it seems odd, given that she's gonna be with Naruto later in the story anyway). IN any case, I don't plan on changing it - the point of this story was to be an AU (warned right there in the summary)- alternate universe, where things are different. _

_If Kushina were the Kyuubi jinch. like one suggested I change it to, she'd be dead - the point of the entire change is that she didn't have the Kyuubi, and didn't go through the strain of the ripping of the Kyuubi out of her seal, and that's why she's alive. Anyway, hope it doesn't turn off too many people that Kushina was once intimate with someone years in the past (aside from Minato), but as I said, I have no plans to change it, so sorry to those who would like it changed._

_And Naruto being Minato's son would also completely change his personality, and frankly have to change the entire story, his reasons for leaving Konoha, the intervening years, etc.  
_

_In the end, this story is about the present, not the past, so hopefully anyone that doesn't like that minor point about Naruto's biological father can look over/past it and enjoy the rest of the story for what it is.  
_


	2. Chapter 2: Recovering

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any related characters. Those belong to Masashi Kishimoto, and things would be a bit different in the manga if I were him. I make no money off this fanfiction, and merely write for the enjoyment of myself and others.**

_Author's Notes: Hey guys, been a while, ne? I had to help some old ladies cross the road, so that's why this chap is out later than I thought it would be. ;) Naw, really, now that I'm looking at things, it'll probably be two weeks or so between each chapter. Anyway, thanks SO much for all of the great feedback from last chapter; I'm glad most of you like the idea of the story, and enjoyed last chap. _

_This chapter, we get some time-skips, and find out bits and pieces of what has happened in the intervening years, before ending at the current timeframe of ~12 years after the first chapter. Don't worry though, there'll be plenty of flashbacks in future chapters that detail some of the events we're skipping over right now._

_Anyway, hope you enjoy this chapter – please read and review!_

* * *

**Chapter 2: Recovering **

* * *

_**Two Months after the attack of the Kyūbi – Konohagakure, Land of Fire**_

Hiruzen Sarutobi looked wearily over the latest ANBU search team reports a final time before he tossed them back down onto his desk. The news was the same as it had been a month ago – Naruto Uzumaki, along with his mother's body, had disappeared completely and not been sighted anywhere.

Now, Sarutobi had nothing to go on, and a number of civilians and Shinobi in the village breathing down his neck about finding and retrieving the body of their Hokage's wife. He felt a pounding headache coming on at the thought of the upcoming Shinobi-Civilian joint council meeting later in the evening.

When Naruto had disappeared with his mother, the first move Sarutobi had to make was to order him placed in the Bingo Book as a missing-nin – the boy had made it clear, _explosively_ clear that he wasn't coming back. Unfortunately, it turned out from one of his aides checking the records, that an oversight had been made during the mass confusion of the Third Shinobi World War when they boy had come to the village, and he'd never been registered as a Konoha ninja. His mother hadn't either, but technically could be considered a Konoha civilian due to her marriage to Minato. Sarutobi had all of his aides cross-referencing the Shinobi roster with citizenship records to ensure no similar situation had happened with refugees from the war, and prevent anything like what they were currently facing.

While Naruto had done missions for Konoha, he could not legally be labeled a missing-nin, as that required actual induction into the Konoha Shinobi corps. The laws controlling that had been put into place many years to prevent the possibility of declaring civilians or independent ninja or mercenaries as missing-nin if they assisted Konoha (and Sarutobi knew that other villages had similar regulations). The other reason behind the laws was to allow joint missions between allied nations, without the allies worrying about being placed in the Bingo book as a missing-nin if that alliance later ended.

Now, until Sarutobi could think of something else, he could either put Naruto in the Bingo book as a foreign-nin who had participated in the theft of a bloodline clan from Konoha, or keep him from the book entirely and hope something happened in the future. Declaring him to be a bloodline thief, however, caused problems for Konoha itself. At first glance, it would of course make them appear to be weak, allowing such a theft.

But an even greater risk from that existed, and it had been recognized by Sarutobi and the elders: if they advertised such a theft, the other countries would certainly hunt for Naruto, but not for 'doing a good deed' and getting Konoha's bloodline back for them, but instead to gain access to the bloodline themselves. Entering him into the bingo book for that would be tantamount to handing over two of the last Uzumaki in the world to whatever Hidden Village got to them first.

Sarutobi heard a familiar 'click-click' of wooden _geta_ on his windowsill, and waved a hand under his desk, sending chakra to de-activate the alarm seal that had been set off by the arrival, so that the ANBU would not storm into the office to attack the intruder.

"Can't you arrive through the door like normal people?" Sarutobi asked, raising his gaze from his paperwork to the man crouching in the windowsill.

He was younger than Sarutobi, somewhere around 40 years old. He had long, nearly waist-length white hair that hung in a ponytail, with two long bangs framing his face. Red streaks ran from his lower eyelids, along his cheeks and down past his chin, and a large metal headband with the kanji for 'oil' adorned his forehead.

He jumped down from the windowsill, his red cloak swirling around the green short-kimono and green pants he wore underneath it, and he grinned. "Now, is that any way to greet your favorite student, _sensei_?"

Sarutobi shook his head wryly. "Have you found anything, Jiraiya?"

Jiraiya was known in Konoha as the Toad Sage, and known well throughout the world as one of the Three Legendary Shinobi, the _Sannin_ – sharing that honor with Sarutobi's other two students, Tsunade and Orochimaru.

Jiraiya's grin dropped, his expression becoming serious. "No, _sensei_. I've been in contact with all of my sources. The kid has gone to ground, and done it _well_."

Sarutobi sighed, and lit his pipe, puffing on it slightly. "We've had the same luck. The best we can hope for is he eventually resurfaces, I think."

Jiraiya shrugged. "Maybe. My best bet is he'll eventually join a village. That and find someone to try to heal his mother."

"Tsunade, do you think?" Sarutobi asked.

Jiraiya nodded. "I'd put some sort of watch on her, in case he approaches. She _is_ the best medic out there. Make it discrete though, so you don't get her pissed off at _you_ for watching her." He reached up and rubbed at his ribs at phantom pain from the one – and only – time that Tsunade had caught him peeping on her.

Sarutobi looked down at a long roster book on his desk, and idly flipped through it. "Perhaps an Inuzuka," he muttered softly. They'd be able to remain further away, avoid tipping off either Naruto _or_ Tsunade, and rely on their chakra-sensing and scenting abilities.

He glanced back up at his old student. "Anything else?"

Jiraiya frowned. "There's something going on in the underground, talk of some mercenary group forming up, with some heavy hitters." He shook his head. "I'll look into it. I did come here for something else – to say that I wish I'd been here to tell you what a _stupid_ idea this whole business with Naruto was."

Sarutobi rubbed his forehead. "I know, Jiraiya, I know. There was little I could do about the girls, and it seemed to be the best option available at the time. In hindsight…"

Jiraiya interrupted with a wave of his hand. "I'm not talking about keeping his sisters from him – that's its own issue. I'm talking about forcing the issue of letting Kushina die. She was Naruto's _world_. Everything he did revolved around her. He was hostile to _Minato_ – of all people – when he first married Kushina. I eventually told Minato – when he came to ask my advice on what to do – to have a talk with him and ensure him he wasn't trying to steal his mother away from him, and the kid finally mellowed out."

"He'd already been told he 'lost' his sisters and then the doctors were threatening the basis for his existence, and you and the elders were siding with them. You triggered his fight or flight response, and he's smart enough to realize he couldn't fight the village on this, so he ran. And I don't exactly blame him," Jiraiya finished, his expression grim.

"I realize that now." Sarutobi said. "But there's little that we can do about it."

"I think if you had talked some sense into the civilian council about the girls – if Naruto had known they were alive – I think he would still be here today." Jiraiya stated, crossing his arms, still wishing he hadn't been away for this whole thing. And wishing even more that he'd been there to stop Minato from sacrificing himself, to take on that burden in place of his student.

"I realize we've made mistakes, but now the question is – what do we do going forward? There is very little in his files, but what is there shows him to be a competent Jōnin, who can lead a team. You interacted with him when you visited Minato, far more than I have. Is he a threat? Or perhaps the better question – how _much_ of a threat is he?"

Jiraiya sighed, and scratched the back of his head. "I really don't know the best way to answer that, _sensei_. The Uzumaki clan always started training their kids earlier than we do, simply because their chakra reserves are so big that they're large enough to perform jutsu much earlier than many other people. Naruto, though, Kushina started him even earlier than most Uzumaki. I'm not sure why, but I suspect it was whatever happened with Naruto's father. Whenever I asked her, she would only tell me that she wanted him to be able to defend himself and those he loved."

"His own natural aptitude for being a Shinobi probably played a part as well," Jiraiya continued. "That kid was so smart, it was _scary_ sometimes, _sensei_. He was a true genius… he reminded me a bit of Orochimaru…." Jiraiya trailed off, remembering his own Genin days and how much better than him Orochimaru had been. "And, well, he had enough power to already make it to Jōnin."

"Power is one thing. What I need to know is what _skill_ he is capable of," Sarutobi said, wishing he'd not let himself fall out of the loop so much since he'd decided to retire and eventually chose his replacement.

"I visited a few times when Kushina was training with him, and some of those things… it was like watching the ANBU entrance exam going on every day," Jiraiya said. "You know how scary _she_ was on the battlefield – probably almost second to Minato, at least in this village – well, she's taught him most of the things she knows, including a lot of Fūinjutsu, which can be pretty deadly in its own right."

The ANBU entrance exam was well known as one of the most grueling experiences any Shinobi could ever go through. Even ANBU daily training paled in comparison to the entrance requirements, which had been put into place to weed out anyone unfit for the duty.

"Bottom-line, Naruto's already a Jōnin, and I know for a fact that the ANBU had already decided to make him a member when he was old enough. He's going to be a very powerful ninja. He'll be a threat to anyone he views as an enemy. I went out to where you said those searchers found Danzō, and whatever he used, Danzō's lucky he's only in the hospital for a few weeks." Jiraiya concluded.

Sarutobi sighed. "Unfortunately, we can't place him in the bingo book right now, even with the attack on Danzō." He shook his head. "Damn fool still hiding his _Root_ from me. If it had been a sanctioned pursuit, we would have _something._"

"I know, _sensei_. How's the old coot doing, by the way?"

Sarutobi sighed at that. "As well as can be expected. He lost his right arm, and the doctors said his leg was little more than jelly with the amount of breaks to his bones. He'll likely be walking with a cane once he's _able _to walk again."

Sarutobi frowned, then. "You've given me a lot to think about on Naruto. Even his teammates did not have a good grasp on how strong he was. So, he _is_ a serious threat – but will he be a threat to _our_ village?"

Jiraiya shrugged. "Like I said, he'll be damned dangerous to anyone he views as an enemy. Fortunately, you didn't manage to do anything to Kushina, so right now he probably views us as an annoyance. But if he _ever_ finds out the truth about his sisters…" Jiraiya trailed off, staring hard at his sensei, not even needing to complete the sentence.

The Hokage nodded. "I'm already drafting a law to keep this from spreading. No one will be allowed to talk about the Jinchūriki or their status to anyone who doesn't already know. I had already been planning this anyway, as there have been several attempts on the girls already by people who have lost loved ones and want revenge on the Kyūbi, and I don't want that passing down to the next generation. The official story to anyone under the age of five, and to any foreigner, is that the Yondaime managed to kill the Kyūbi."

"With the side benefit of spreading the idea that Konoha produces Shinobi strong enough to kill a Bijū," Jiraiya said with a slight grin. "I'll keep an ear to the ground with my network, make sure that if we start hearing about the girls or anything related to them outside of the village, we can act quickly and weed it out before it spreads. We don't need the threat of a revenge-obsessed Uzumaki targeting us."

Jiraiya moved back to the window. "I'll leave you to have fun with your council meeting tonight," he said with a wink. "I've got some research to do for a new book I've started writing."

"I'm sure it will be good," Sarutobi said with a slight smile – he'd been one of the few who had bought his student's book, "_Tales of a Gutsy Ninja"_, which had failed to become a best-seller.

"I'm _very_ sure you will," Jiraiya said with a mysterious grin as he leapt back out the window, and into the streets below.

_**-oOo-**_

_**-oOo-**_

_**-oOo-**_

_**7 Years after the attack of the Kyūbi – Konohagakure, Land of Fire**_

The young red-haired girl jumped as a loud crack of thunder rolled through the village, shaking the windows of their tiny little apartment. Heavy rain beat at the windows, whipped to a fury by the howling rains. Every year in Konoha saw at least one major storm like this one – one that kept even the hardiest individuals inside. Out in the village, even most of the Shinobi guarding the gates of Konoha were sheltered inside their guardhouses.

A loud thump made the girl jump, and grab wildly for her sister's hand across the bed in the dark of the apartment. The thump was followed by several more, until a staccato beat drummed across the roof as the rain turned into hail – some pieces nearing the size of the girl's other small fist, which clenched the blanket.

"K-Kasumi-nee-chan," she whispered softly.

Lightning streaked across the sky, lighting up the room, and illuminating its occupants. The young redhead, cowering under the covers of the bed in her pajamas, reaching out for comfort from her twin sister.

Kasumi smiled at her sister comfortingly, and squeezed her hand. She shook her head slightly, her long blond hair bouncing at the movement as she scooted across the bed, and put an arm around her sister.

"Don't worry, Karin-chan, it'll be fine. There's nothing to worry about, little sis. Remember, I'll always protect you," she said, as she tried to hide a shake in her own voice.

She'd taken the role of big sister early on, though being twins, they had no idea which one was truly the oldest, and even old man Hokage told them he wasn't sure. But she'd taken it on anyway, and enjoyed it to the fullest, glad that her sister looked up to her like she did, and she took her job of protecting her little sister very seriously.

It was times like these, even when she was shaking in fear at the horrible storm, that she put on a calm face to comfort Karin, though she wished someone else were there to comfort _her_ – comfort them both. But they were orphans, and all they had was each other.

Kasumi squeezed Karin in a hug as she felt the other girl shake against her and then switch her other hand from gripping the sheets, to tightly gripping Kasumi's orange pajama shirt.

Kasumi stroked her sister's messy red hair, and hummed a low tune she'd once heard a mother singing to her child in the park, and she tried to drown out the noise of the storm for herself and her sister.

The relative peace of the moment was shattered suddenly by a crashing sound on the other side of the wall – debris breaking a window in the apartment next to theirs – followed by startled shouts and voices muffled by the wall.

The howling of the wind outside picked up, and the windows began to shake, and both girls gripped one another more tightly. Kasumi was nearly shaking as much as her sister now as a low siren sounded through the village, indicating that the few brave souls up on the walls had sighted a tornado in the area.

Suddenly, a feeling of warmth and calm passed over Kasumi's body, and her stomach began to glow a golden color, visible beneath the sheets. Slowly, golden chains of chakra began to emerge, and light up the room to the girls' astonished eyes.

The chains swayed in the air like snakes, and then began to wrap around the entwined bodies of the twins, cocooning them in the warm energy they emitted. Other chains seemed to slide around the room, and become rigid, while emitting a low glow of energy from one chain to the next, to slowly create a dome of protective energy around the room. As each chain slid into place, the noise from outside dimmed as the energy seemed to dampen and insulate the area the chains now surrounded.

"Kasumi-nee-chan?" Karin asked, looking up at her sister her wide, red-irised eyes, only to see an identical expression from her twin.

"I-I don't know Karin-chan, I don't think I did anything…." Kasumi said, her own gray-blue eyes moving down to her stomach where a glowing seal was outlined – the same place from which the chains were all emerging.

Karin closed her eyes, and shivered slightly at the strength of the chakra she could sense coming from her sister, and from the chains. "Really strong," she muttered, reaching out to touch one of the chains. A feeling of peace, of being caressed lovingly, flowed over her – and she felt, rather than saw, a seal on her own stomach light up.

The chains slid into their final places, and the roar of the storm outside dulled to a light whisper, while the chains that had encircled the girls drew tighter, pulling them closer together.

One last, strong pulse of warmth and caring pulsed across their bodies, so tangible it was almost as if they could hear words attached to it: a message of '_Be calm, you're safe now._'

Karin smiled up at her sister, before yawning slightly, and resting her cheek against Kasumi's shoulder, the storm outside now all but forgotten. Whatever this was, whatever power Kasumi had, they knew they were safe now. "Thanks, nee-chan," Karin muttered sleepily, her eyes fluttering shut.

Kasumi pondered the feeling that had washed over them once more, and then finally shook her head, and leaned down to kiss Karin's forehead before she carefully removed the glasses from her sister's face, and reached back through the chains that surrounded them to set the thick-rimmed spectacles on the night stand.

Whatever it was, it felt like they finally had something – or someone – looking out for them just like she'd wished for, Kasumi thought to herself as she leaned her head to rest it against Karin's, and drifted to sleep in the peaceful silence that masked the storm that continued to hit the village around them.

_**-oOo-**_

_**-oOo-**_

_**8 Years after the attack of the Kyūbi – Near the Land of Water**_

Naruto gasped for breath, and he let his companion's arm slip off his shoulder as he sat him down on the shore, far enough inland that the waves weren't lapping up against them. As fit as a ninja could be, practically carrying someone bigger than you, along with a sword nearly your own height, across several miles of ocean, was _tough_.

"C'mon," Naruto said between breaths as the man lay back on the beach, his skin paler than Naruto had ever seen it get.

His companion grunted, and shook his head, hand reaching down to the gangrenous black skin surrounding a large puncture wound on his bare stomach. The patch of dying skin had been the size of a finger when they'd started out, now it was the size of Naruto's hand.

"No, kid, this's as far as I'm making it. Shhhhit!" he hissed out. "Little fucker got me good. Should've been more careful, knowing who his partner is." he rasped, leaning his head back against the large shape of his sword. "No healing this one, we already tried. Whatever that bastard had on that knife, it's eating at my guts, and not letting me heal anything."

Naruto bit his lip and growled, trying to lift the man again, his nearly shoulder-length head of messy red hair obscuring his vision as he bent down. But the man resisted, even weak as he was.

"Damnit, _sempai_, there might be something in the scrolls that can help." Naruto said.

The man closed his eyes briefly, and coughed, and Naruto could see blood on his sharp, almost shark-like teeth when he opened his mouth to speak. "Face it Naruto, Sasori's poisons, mixed with whatever else that damned snake had on that dagger, aren't something you can fix. Should've figured him and that slimy bastard Orochimaru being partnered together was bad news. Don't know how they figured out I was finally leaving," he said, glancing down at the tattered remnants of a black and red cloak that hung from his waist, the only other signs of the long fight he'd been in against the other two S-Ranked Missing-nin.

He reached up and gripped Naruto's shoulder firmly. "Listen kid, I know we didn't get off to the greatest start, but… just wanted you to know you were right." He coughed out a laugh. "First person I ever said that to, but it's the truth. You made me see that not everything in the world is a lie. And you're still a fuckin' snot-nosed brat, for making me say that now."

Naruto laughed softly, and placed a hand on his _sempai'_s forehead as his eyes closed, touching the scratched-out Kirigakure forehead protector. "Thanks. You're still an old geezer."

He chuckled wetly, and opened his eyes again. "I know you have your own goals, with your mother. When you're done, kill those two bastards for me. And see if you can do what I couldn't… with Kiri."

Naruto lowered his head. "I swear, _sempai_, Sasori and Orochimaru will die."

He sank his head back, grimacing in pain as the poison continued to attack his body. "My sword… you've learned everything I've got to teach you… she's yours. You're a Swordsman of the Mist now, kid..." His voice trailed, and there was a rattling sound to his breathing.

"_Sempai_?"

"You earned it. It's your birthright, Naruto."

Naruto's brows furrowed. "Unless this is one of those 'Naruto, I am your father' moments – and I'm pretty damn sure you aren't, even if you're a geezer – I don't understand…."

His companion shook his head. "Not like that, dumbshit, I never told you… looks like your mother never did either… Wish I had more time, but, your clan, kid… they _made_ the swords, or that's the legend at least. Gifted them to Kiri as part of an alliance before the First War. Take the sword, she's yours." He reached up to grip the handle one final time, before he looked back up at Naruto, who stared back at him with wide eyes.

"Thank you, for this and… for telling me that," Naruto said, as his mind raced at the idea that these swords – _this_ sword – were made by his clansmen perhaps over a hundred years ago. Another link to his family and clan, revealed just when he was about to lose someone who he had come to think of as an older brother.

"When I… when I'm…" He was seized with a coughing fit, his fist coming away from his mouth covered in blood. "Ocean burial, kid, it's where I belong. And Naruto, crazy as it'll sound, I've actually got faith in you - I know you'll figure out a way to bring her back – you never break your word …. And y'know …. I'd still tap that, if she was awake," he said, teeth bared in a wide grin, before the light left slowly left his eyes, and his body relaxed as his life left him.

"Asshole," Naruto muttered fondly, as to keep his tears contained, and reached up to gently close the man's eyelids.

He looked up, and out over the ocean, hatred in his narrowed eyes as he stared in the direction his _sempai _had come from. He pulled out a kunai, and slashed a line across his palm, letting his blood pool in it before turning his hand, and clenching it into a fist. He lifted the tightly clenched fist up in challenge.

"Orochimaru, I trusted you once and nearly lost my mother, and now you've helped take my brother's life. Sasori, you think yourself safe, hidden behind your spies and poison and puppets, but I'll be the one to prove to you how foolish that belief is. I swear that your deaths will not be easy. They will not be quick. And they will be at my hands, and you _will _suffer," he swore, letting his blood spatter across the sand of the beach, a dark crimson in the light of the sun as it set across the shattered ruins of his home country, which stood behind him.

_**-oOo-**_

_**-oOo-**_

_**12 Years after the attack of the Kyūbi – Kirigakure, Land of Water**_

Naruto awoke slowly to the feeling of warm breath against his neck, and an even warmer body pressed up against his side. He cracked open his eyes, and turned his head. A pair of warm green eyes stared back at him, one eye partly covered by one of his companion's long auburn bangs.

"Morning, Mei-chan" Naruto said, stretching slowly, careful not to pull away.

Her pink lips quirked up into a smile. "Sleep well, lazy?" She asked, letting her long, slim fingers trace a pattern on the bare skin of his chest.

"After last night? Of course. You always tire me out, _hime_." He said, grinning.

A dusting of red appeared on her cheeks, and she shifted to rest her chin on his shoulder, so she could nuzzle her nose against his neck. "You're one to talk. It's gonna be a long, _sore_ day behind the desk."

Naruto chuckled, and lifted an arm slightly to mesh his fingers with the ones she was moving slowly along his chest. He glanced over at the clock next to the bed, and groaned. "We've gotta get up, _hime_. You're supposed to host that trade meeting. If you're late, Zabuza will never let us hear the end of it."

Mei sighed heavily, and nodded. Zabuza might seem to most people as a hard, uncaring man, but there was another side that only his friends saw… one that would tease the two of them mercilessly about their relationship, especially if they were late for something like this.

She pressed her lips to Naruto's cheek, and then slowly sat up, getting off the bed.

Naruto's eyes followed her with interest, her nearly ankle-length red-brown hair dragging along the bed before it settled into place, blocking much of his view of her shapely form.

A satisfied grin spread across his face as he closed his eyes, hearing her turn on the shower. Soft footsteps sounded moments later as she returned to the room.

"You should get going too, Naruto-kun," she said, poking his side gently.

His eyes snapped open, and he sat up quickly, grasping the hand that had poked him. "As you wish, Mizukage-sama," he said teasingly.

She rolled her eyes. "I wouldn't be Mizukage, if it weren't for you. We'd still be fighting against Yagura and his men right now… my brave Swordsman," she said the last with a husky note to her voice, before she leaned slightly closer to trail lazy kisses along his neck and up to his lips.

Mei deepened the kiss, moving her free hand up into his hair, her blue nail polish clashing with his long red locks. She sighed slightly as she pulled back several long moments later, and her eyes met his once more. "I'll have a mission for you, Naruto-_koi_, to keep you busy while I'm in these trade meetings for the next week. There's a missing-nin – one of Yagura's _Jōnin_ that escaped the battles – up in the Land of Frost. We think he's going to try selling Kirigakure's secrets – he's already asking around to see who's interested."

Naruto nodded, though hesitantly. "How long do you think it will take?"

She shrugged, looking at him curiously. "That's up to you, why?"

"At the end of the week…. It's _that_ time." He said, his gaze moving over to the window that faced north – toward Konohagakure.

Mei's eyes softened, and she reached up to caress his cheek with the back of her hand. "I'm sorry, I've been so busy, I forgot. Finish things up as quickly as you like – Konoha is on your way back anyway. Do you want me to cancel things today so we can go visit _her_ before you go?"

Naruto smiled weakly, a pained look barely visible in his gaze. "No, Mei-chan, I'll visit when I head off today – you stay here and get this village the trade agreements it needs. I'll be fine."

Mei leaned forward, resting her forehead against his. "I'm sorry my clan's medical scrolls didn't help. I was sure they would have something, with our past ties to Uzushio and all..."

Naruto nodded against her, and kissed her lips lightly. "You've already apologized a dozen times, when there's nothing for you to be sorry for, _hime. _Thank you for trying though…. And understanding. I'll find another way…. I _have_ to." He said softly, as he took in his lover's presence as she nodded her head against his chest.

She'd been one of the few people he'd ever told about his mother, and the only person besides himself who knew where she was hidden while he spent the last decade searching for a way to revive her. Mei, who was 7 years his senior, had become his lifeline, the only thing that saved him from spiraling into a much darker place, and he couldn't thank her enough for being there for him for these past five years – first as a friend, and now as his closest confidante and lover.

The Terumi clan had been one of the smaller clans that made up the village of Uzushiogakure, and being with her felt like at least a small piece of his heart had been restored. And now Kirigakure was starting to become a real home to him. He could only pray to the gods that he didn't lose this one as well.

Mei smiled warmly, and rubbed her forehead against his. "I'm certain you will, Naruto-kun. But for now - care to join me in the shower?" She asked as she pulled back, and began to walk slowly toward the bathroom. She paused only to glance over her shoulder her eyes hooded and smoldering.

Naruto growled in the back of his throat at the sight of her swaying hips, and heard her laugh as he quickly got up and followed her to the next room.

_**-oOo-**_

_**-oOo-**_

_**Kirigakure, Land of Water**_

Naruto stepped out into the covered courtyard that encircled the core of the Mizukage Tower. It was a large, long walkway under the roof of the enormous round building, and various plants grew along it, with open windows on one side of the walkway letting in the cool morning air of Kirigakure.

He put his arms up behind his head, and took a deep breath of the air. He smiled slightly at the low hum of activity that could be heard through the open windows from the city. The sounds of rebuilding were much more peaceful than the sounds of war which had filled these streets not so long ago.

Naruto considered taking the stairs down to ground level – or rather, the level of the large raised platform surrounding the Tower, keeping it well above the somewhat marshy ground surrounding it – and then decided against the tedious trek.

He instead walked over to one of the open windows, and paused a moment as he looked out over the city: large, tall round buildings with many windows, and trees and plants growing from their roofs stood nearby – the housing for the hidden village's Shinobi. Smaller, more squat buildings only a few stories tall were visible out further into the marshy forest that surrounded the city, which contained many of the other Shinobi facilities for the city.

Inward, toward the city proper, buildings of various sizes and shapes filled the area, and he could see numerous large construction projects going on to build and repair important buildings in the village. Down below, on the cobble and dirt streets of the city, thousands of villagers went about their daily lives.

To the far north, on the opposite side of the village from where he stood, he could make out the outlines of tall, craggy mountains – that surrounded the north, east, and west of the village – through the thick fog and mist that gave the village its name. Only to the south was the terrain not so foreboding, and even then, it was miles of swamp and forest, with only a few elevated and dry trade roads on which their commerce traveled.

Naruto glanced down, and then _dropped_ the nearly 60 feet down the main face of the Mizukage tower, slowing his descent slightly with a chakra-covered hand applying some pressure to the stone face of the tower. He landed in a low crouch, and then began to walk toward the nearest tall building, where his quarters were, patting his pockets to make sure he'd remembered to bring all of his things from Mei's room.

As he walked along the large, raised stone platform, glancing down from time to time to see the low river that ran through the large culverts under his feet – made to carry a much larger load that would be seen during the floods brought by the spring monsoons that plagued the region.

A ramp led down from the main platform, down to the entrances of the apartments set aside for Shinobi of the Mist, and as he neared his building, he grinned when he saw a figure out on the courtyard that surrounded the building.

A young teen around 14 years of age, wearing a pink, sleeveless and low-cut kimono, knelt in meditation. She was a slight girl, with long black hair that settled down around her shoulders, framing a beautiful face and contrasting with her pale skin. She had her hands held out in front of her, a fist-sized ball of water hovering inches above them – a paper-thin layer of ice covering the surface as the water inside rotated slowly.

"Ohayo, Haku-chan!" Naruto called while still a several long strides away.

Haku's large, dark brown eyes opened slowly, and the ball above her hands slowly crystallized fully into a ball of ice before she let her chakra lower it into her hands.

Her eyes finally focused on him, and she lowered her head slightly in a nod of greeting. "Good morning, Naruto-sama. How did you sleep?"

"_Very_ well," he said with a wide grin, and saw a faint pink dust her pale cheeks – she was one of likely only a handful who knew of his more…. intimate… relationship with the Mizukage.

He nodded to the ball of ice in her hand. "I see your chakra exercises are coming along nicely?"

She turned the ice slowly in her hands, and nodded. "Yes, thank you for teaching me them, Naruto-sama. I have found that I am able to form my ice much faster, and with less effort than before."

Naruto grinned, and reached down to pat her head. "Keep working on it – I've got another family scroll on advanced chakra exercises for you. I'm going off on a mission, but I'll be back in a week or so. Let's have a spar then and see how much you've improved, and I'll give you the scroll then."

She smiled warmly, her eyes lighting up. "I look forward to it. I will keep working on it, to make you and Zabuza-sama proud."

"Speaking of No-Eyebrows," Naruto said, "what's he up to? Thought I might get his insight on the mission I'll be taking, get an idea of who I'll be up against."

Haku smiled apologetically. "Zabuza-sama is already in the city. Several of the officials for today's meeting arrived early, and asked for a tour of the city, so he was stuck showing them around," she said, her voice barely containing a soft laugh.

Naruto guffawed at the thought. "On second thought, he's probably not in a good mood having to play tour guide and host, and definitely won't be happy to see me with me keeping Mei-chan, erm… busy…."

Haku's eyes danced, and she shook her head. "You are right, when I saw him, he was muttering something about scalping you."

"Oh well," Naruto said, scratching his head. "I should get going then, get packed and get my mission before he hunts me down. Goodbye, Haku-chan, see you when I get back," he said, ruffling her hair once more, before walking into the building.

Naruto had met Haku and her teacher and companion, Zabuza Momochi – The Demon Of the Hidden Mist, and one of its famed Seven Swordsmen, wielder of the sword _Kubikiribōchō (Decapitating Carving Knife)_ – several years back.

At the time, they'd been missing-nin, much like Mei and her rebels. Naruto, one of several who she'd sent in search of allies in the rebellion, had gone looking for Zabuza, as he had learned the man had attempted a coup of his own.

Unfortunately, Zabuza and Haku had seen the Kirigakure hitai-ate he'd received when he joined the rebels, and believed he was after them to collect the bounty on Zabuza. Before Naruto even got the chance to explain why he was there, he had been pulled into a long, intense fight with Zabuza. That was where he learned that Zabuza' moniker of Demon of the Hidden Mist had been well earned, and well deserved. He'd lost an arm in that fight – fortunately his Uzumaki bloodline allowed it to grow back within a few days – before he had managed to get the advantage for a few minutes, and gain enough time to explain himself.

He knew he likely could have taken Zabuza in a straight up fight, and likely win, at his current level and perhaps even back then, but he'd had to hold back in the fight as he didn't want to kill the man he was trying to recruit. Truthfully, it was likely only the fact that he wielded one of the other Seven Swords himself, that he'd been able to get the upper hand and end the fight.

Once their misunderstanding was cleared up, and after a bit of persuasion, Zabuza finally joined their efforts to overthrow the Mizukage. Over that time, he and Zabuza had become comrades and even friends. And much the same had occurred between himself and the young prodigy who Zabuza had taken in and raised – she was the last of the Yuki clan, the only one of that family of ice-users to escape the Kekkei-Genkai massacres brought about by the previous Mizukage's regime.

Naruto bit back a sigh at a stabbing feeling in his chest. He and Haku had developed a somewhat sibling-like relationship – though perhaps more akin to him being her uncle, with her insistence on labeling him 'Naruto-sama' and how she treated him with nearly the same measure of respect and admiration as she did Zabuza. In either case, sometimes it reminded him of what he was missing – what he'd lost that day 12 years ago, what he could have had if his sisters had lived.

He stopped a moment, closed his eyes tightly, and shook his head. These stray thoughts always tended to pop up more frequently every year this close to the anniversary of the attack. He took a deep breath, and then continued up several flights of stairs to the fifth floor, and slid his key from his pocket.

He put the key into the lock, and then placed a hand on the door where he'd placed several dozen seals. A brief pulse of chakra confirmed none had been tripped, and no one had tried to enter his room. Some might think it paranoid, but he was simply careful – there were few he trusted, and it always paid to be cautious.

He deactivated the seals with a quick twist of his finger and the chakra he'd pulsed into them, and entered his apartment. It was modestly furnished, and no bigger than the rest of the apartments in the building. He slipped off his shoes in the entryway, and turned to close the door, and lock it behind him.

He pulled off his wrinkled shirt, and tossed it across the room onto a basket filled with clothes waiting for him to take to the laundry and clean. As he rounded the corner past the small table next to the kitchen, a skittering sound was his only warning as a figure launched itself from the open door of his bedroom down the short hall, and slammed bodily into him, nearly knocking him off his feet.

"Damn it, girl, give me a little warning," he said, wincing at the sharp scales of the creature that had rammed into him as they scratched his bare chest.

Samehada was a long – over four feet at the moment – and rather heavy being. Dark grayish-blue, razor sharp scales covered the entire body of the sentient sword that had become his partner almost four years ago to the day with the death of her master and the man Naruto had learned so much from.

The sentient sword could change shape, and even grow, but generally remained at this size, with a shape of an almost cylindrical greatsword, just about matching Zabuza's own sword in size, and several feet in diameter. Near what would normally be the tip, or end of the sword, the scales opened up to reveal a mouth filled with sharp teeth.

A long pink tongue extended from the mouth, and licked Naruto messily on the cheek as the sword's body vibrated in greeting, scales clacking against one another.

"Agh! Okay, okay, girl, sorry I haven't been paying much attention to you. I promise, you'll have a good feeding soon, okay? We've got a mission."

A trilling sound echoed from Samehada's throat, and he felt a slight tug on his chakra as his sword nibbled at it. It had seemed Kisame was right about the Swords being created by Uzumaki. However it was that they had managed to make Samehada, the sentient sword had always seemed very attracted to his chakra, even when Kisame had owned her. And now, he'd found that she'd become much more active – as well as affectionate – toward her new owner than anything he'd seen from the sword before, even when Kisame went on a killing frenzy.

Whether it was the taste of his chakra, or the large Uzumaki reserves he held, he didn't know, but he wouldn't complain. The creature had become more than a sword, even more than a pet, to him – Samehada had become one of his closest companions, as weird as some might view such a thing.

He ran his fingers across the scales of her head, careful to run them with the grain so they didn't get cut on the sharp scales. He winced slightly as Samehada moved the scales that allowed her to cling to his body, and shifted the longer scales – almost like dozens of tiny feet – and climbed up his chest until the bulk of her weight rested on his shoulder.

The flexible 'hilt' at the opposite end of Samehada's body, wrapped around his arm as the sword settled into place. The 'hilt' looked at first glance to most people to be an ordinary leather-wrapped sword hilt, built into the tapered end of the sentient sword. But in reality, it was essentially an extremely flexible prehensile tail, protected by hard brownish, interlocking scales, and capped with a bony protrusion at the end that looked rather like a miniature version of a human skull.

Now that Samehada had anchored herself in place across his shoulders, he was able to move freely through the apartment. It had taken him close to a year to get used to carrying and using Samehada due to the extreme weight of the sentient sword. The fact that the sword didn't cut in a normal sense, but rather shaved away at the flesh when used correctly, had also made him adjust his fighting style, though he'd found that the training with a large flail that Kisame had been tutoring him in helped greatly in adjusting to the sentient sword.

Now, though, he'd fully built up the muscle mass and strength needed to bear the sword correctly, and his large chakra reserves due to his ancestry let Samehada easily feed off of his own chakra without any strain to himself.

Naruto entered his bedroom, and pulled on a pair of long blue shorts that extended down several inches below his knees. A pair of light, striped leg-warmers that were common Kiri-nin attire covered the rest of his leg, and overlapped slightly with the shorts. He slid on his sandals, and then bid for Samehada to crawl back off of him and onto the bed while he put on a sleeveless black shirt, and similarly-colored fingerless gloves.

He bent down to pick up his flak vest, and slid it on. Unlike Konoha's flak vests, Kirigakure's were a slate grey in color rather than drab green, and had noticeably longer shoulder pads. His last accessory was a now well-worn Kirigakure hitai-ate, which he tied across his forehead – where it helped greatly in keeping his hair held back away from his face.

Naruto smiled when Samehada gave a questioning trill. "Yeah, I'm ready. Let's get you wrapped up for the trip, and we can go get the mission scroll," he said, as he reached for a large roll of bandages he kept in the pocket of his flak vest.

_**-oOo-**_

_**-oOo-**_

_**Near the Land of Water**_

A shard of pottery crunched underneath Naruto's sandal as he walked through the jumbled ruins of Uzushiogakure. Buildings that once stood proud and tall were now shattered remnants fo their former glory, and large pillars now rested on top of what were once houses, knocked loose from where they had once sat. At one point, years ago, he would have been walking on the bones of his clansmen and others who had lived in his home village. It had taken some time, since his first visit back here years before, but he and an army of shadow clones had given them all a proper burial – though many were still probably buried beneath the shattered buildings of the city.

He reached the center of the city, and then closed his eyes, stretching out his senses to ensure he hadn't been followed. He only moved when his own scan was complete, and he received an affirmative growl from Samehada – she was by far a better sensor than he was, able to detect even most of those who tried to mask their chakra, a skill very few were truly capable of doing completely.

He moved to a large, now-destroyed fountain that took up much of the space in the center square of the city - he vaguely remembered playing in it with his mother when he was a toddler. Once Naruto was standing in the basin – which was filled with a few inches of brackish rain water – he pressed his hands against two specific spots on the weathered fountain, and forced chakra down into the marble surface. Intricate and glowing seals sprang to life on the stone surface, and he twisted and manipulated the seals until the right array was created. He sent another pulse of chakra into the seals, and they responded to their new orientation by 'unlocking' that which they sealed.

The enormous marble fountain rumbled and a portion of the center pedestal of the fountain – which had once held up intricate sculptures of various sea creatures that shot water from their mouths – slid open to reveal a narrow entrance, and an even narrower set of stairs that led down underneath the streets of the city.

Naruto stepped in, careful to not hit his head on the low ceiling, and began his descent down the steps. The entrance slid shut behind him, and he was forced to reach out along the wall in the darkness and send chakra into another seal array, a cascading array that ran the length of the passageway. Torches along the path of the array lit up as it activated, lighting the way downward.

This was one of the village secrets, an entrance into the emergency Shinobi command post, used during an invasion. He'd searched for the entrance for days, only having vague recollections of the stories his mother told him as he grew up – being only a Genin when they'd left, he'd never been privy to it or the entrance locations. Eventually he'd found it, and it had since become his base of operations, well before he'd ever become a Shinobi of the Mist.

The cool gray stone became damp as he reached the bottom of the staircase, and the air was noticeably colder as he stepped into the underground complex. He came out into a large, high-ceilinged room that had its walls lined with similar doorways to staircases and tunnels that led out to other parts of the city.

His footsteps echoed in the large room as he strode across it and into the armory and scroll library, which had still been partially stocked when he'd arrived, and now was filled with his own additions to it.

The next room had been the operations center, with several large video screens still on the walls, hooked up to cameras that no longer existed. The generator that ran the power-intensive equipment sat in the corner, silent for over a decade.

Naruto passed the communication equipment, which would have been used to contact Shinobi out in the city, and exited into another, darker room which had once been a holding area to hold and interrogate captive enemies.

He strode over to one of the cells, and slid his palm over the lock. The door opened to the stench of human filth and sweat. In the corner, sat a middle-aged Shinobi, rocking back and forth on his knees and staring silently at the wall. His long, tangled hair and unkempt beard were testament to the fact that he'd been here several weeks.

Naruto knelt beside him and carefully removed the intricate seal he had placed on him – one that mimicked the effects of being in a sensory deprivation chamber.

The man gasped, and fell backwards, trying to cover his eyes and ears at the sudden onslaught of his senses that had been denied him.

"Now, Hozuka, are you ready to talk this time?" Naruto asked, grasping the man's arm and forcing it away from his eyes while he scrunched them shut as tightly as possible.

"Yes! Yes! Please, I'll talk! I'll tell you anything you want! Please, just promise me you won't use that on me again, please!" The man said, sounding rather frantic.

Naruto's eyebrow rose – perhaps he'd left it on a bit too long, but the man had refused to talk when he'd last come here. "Alright, Hozuka, I swear I will not put that seal on you, or torture you any more, if you give me everything you know. Where is Orochimaru?"

"I, I don't know."

Naruto growled, and the man tried to shrink back.

"Please, I'm telling the truth. His headquarters are in the Land of Rice Fields, he calls his organization 'Otogakure', but he has so many different hideouts, and he's always moving from one to the next. No one person knows where more than three of them are. I've worked in two of them, I can show you where they are." Hozuka said desperately.

Naruto made a noise of acknowledgement in his throat, and picked Hozuka up by the arm, dragging him over to the wall where he'd placed the map of the Shinobi land the last time he'd visited. He pulled a brush from one of his pockets – one he used quite often for making seals – and dipped it into a vial of ink, and handed it to the man, who carefully examined the map, and placed two dots within the boundaries of the Land of Rice Fields, while explaining the specifics of how to find each of them.

Naruto finally nodded, filing the information away in the back of his mind. "Now, what has he been up to? You've only been away from him for a few weeks now, so anything you can give me could still be of use to me."

"I-I-I really don't know. Orochimaru-sama is very private and secretive. He usually only speaks with his scientists, and with his test subjects…. But I have heard rumors that he is planning something that might involve the Kyūbi."

Hozuka shrunk back again as Naruto's eyes hardened at the mention of the Kyūbi. "Could it be reforming already? It's been twelve years since Minato defeated it…" Naruto murmured.

'_Is it even possible for it to regain its chakra after being sealed away into the Shinigami?_' Naruto thought, his mind racing. '_Or did he find some way to undo whatever Minato-san did, or a way to summon the Shinigami himself?_' The latter sounded like something Orochimaru could have stumbled upon, Naruto knew he was obsessed with immortality so more than likely he'd end up coming upon something that dealt with the God of Death himself.

Whatever the case was, he certainly didn't want to meet up with an Orochimaru backed with the power of the Kyūbi. Naruto's eyes lit up, remembering some information he'd tortured from another of Orochimaru's ninja a year ago.

Orochimaru had been looking into the Sharingan and its power… and history told of how Madara Uchiha had once used his own Sharingan to control the Kyūbi during his legendary battle with Hashirama Senju. Perhaps Orochimaru intended to do the same, if he could somehow acquire Sharingan eyes from an Uchiha. Though it would be hard – even Kiri had heard word of the Uchiha clan massacre several years back, largely due to Uchiha Itachi's placement in the Bingo Book.

Naruto glanced back at the man who cowered in his presence. A quick glance at his eyes told Naruto all he needed to know – Hozuka was either telling the truth about all of this, or he was one of the best liars to ever grace the planet.

Naruto's lip curled in a grimace of disgust at the cowardly man who had claimed to be a Shinobi, and served Orochimaru. "I believe you, Hozuka. You're lucky. For a moment there I was considering putting the Senses-Killing Seal on you again."

Hozuka's eyes grew wide with fright at the thought of undergoing more weeks of that torture, but then wider again as he realized that Naruto would keep his promise.

"I-I can leave now? No more torture?"

Naruto forced a smile on his face. "No more torture," he said, helping the man stand.

A sickly, wet noise sounded through the room, and the man's eyes widened even further, his mouth moving without a sound, except for a rattling gasp, and moments later he fell limp against Naruto.

Naruto slowly removed the kunai from the man's chest, and let him slump down to the ground as Naruto wiped the blood from the blade, and returned it to its pouch.

"But you can't leave," Naruto muttered, finishing his sentence as he laid out a large scroll covered with intricate sealing designs. Within moments, Hozuka's body was sealed within the scroll, to be later disposed of properly.

Even an enemy – and a cowardly one who would sell out his comrades, at that – deserved the respect of a proper burial, he remembered his mother teaching him.

Naruto sighed, and turned to the map on the wall. He removed it and rolled it up tightly before he placed it into one of the scroll pouches on his flak vest. Now, there was only one last thing to do – one more room to visit before he left on his mission.

_**-oOo-**_

The last room in the complex had served as an emergency medical station. Now, it served a similar purpose - on a large bed in the middle of the room, rested the still form of Kushina Uzumaki.

Naruto entered the room and approached his mother's bed, carefully disarming a series of _very_ volatile seal arrays he had set up to protect this room, and bent down to kiss her warm forehead.

"Hey, kaa-chan. Sorry I haven't visited for a few weeks. Things in Kiri are pretty hectic with the rebuilding we're doing." He said softly to her unconscious form, running a hand through her still-vibrant red hair.

He went through his routine of checking the seals he'd placed on her, recharging those that were running low on chakra. The most important of them were the stasis seals.

Stasis seals had been invented over a hundred years ago, and were used mostly by food traders to preserve their wares on long trips, and prevent decay. It did have some effect, especially on fragile foods like fruits and vegetables, but had the overall effect of "freezing time" – or rather, making it pass much more slowly for whatever was under the effect of the seal than it did for the rest of the world.

It had been the Uzumaki Clan that had realized its use in combat medicine, and developed several variants of the seal that could be used to place a grievously injured Shinobi into a temporary stasis, until they could be transported back to the field hospital where there were more to care for and treat their injuries.

Long term use, though, anything more than a few days, wreaked havoc on the bodies and chakra systems of those it was used on. Longer than a month, and most Shinobi would be dead. The Uzumaki, however, had found that the effects were not as serious on those with their Clan, as the effects occurred slowly enough that they could be matched and opposed by the natural healing abilities of those had the Uzumaki bloodline.

Naruto had found the long-term seals amongst the family scrolls, and applied them to Kushina a few months after his escape from Konoha. He had kept them in place ever since, after determining that her healing abilities were keeping up with the damaging effects of the seals.

In effect, her body had retained much of its muscle tone and muscle mass – one of the main problems that most long-term coma patients faced was having to recover their former strength when they awoke – and had hardly aged a day since she'd been placed under stasis. It felt somewhat odd when he thought about it, but now having recently turned 21 years old, her body was essentially only a few years older than his own.

Naruto glanced over at a workbench to the side of the bed, and fought down his frustration at the sight of his most recent failed attempt at reviving her. He'd tried so many things he'd lost count, but while the failures brought frustration, he never lost his certainty that he could bring her back _somehow_, and never dimmed his resolve to do so.

Once the seals were all fully powered and he'd ensured they were all working properly, he sat down on the bed next to her, and reached a hand up to gently stroke her cheek, looking down at her ever-beautiful face.

"I'm sorry it's taking so long, kaa-chan. When I ran away like I did, I was so naïve. I thought I'd have you cured and back to normal within a year. Now when you wake up, you'll hardly even recognize me. I hope I'm still making you proud, even if I'm not even proud of some of the things I've done to try to help you. Orochimaru…. Now that was my biggest mistake. I was still a stupid kid then."

"I've got a new lead, though. Some rumors of a restoration jutsu from some traveling doctor named Shinnō… I'll have to find him and hope he's the real thing." Naruto sighed, remembering the many leads he'd chased down that had turned out to be nothing more than people making claims to make themselves look important or special. And the many others that were legitimate, but simply didn't seem to work for Kushina's condition.

"It's _that_ time again, kaa-chan. Kasumi and Karin would be turning twelve in a few days. I'll visit their graves like I always do, and leave a flower from me and you. And Minato-san's, too, of course. I know you loved him, and I realize now that I did too. He couldn't ever be my father, but he _was_ my friend, and he still is who I strive to be like."

"I wish… I wish my sisters could at least have lived… I wish I could have raised them like you raised me, kaa-chan. I'm sorry I couldn't protect any of you," he whispered, squeezing her hand as a single tear slid down his cheek, and landed on her own.

He chuckled slightly. "Heh, look at me getting all weepy again – always do this time of year. You always told me I shouldn't lock away my emotions completely like some Shinobi do, so I guess I'm just listening to you even now."

Naruto sighed softly as Samehada rustled slightly on his back, sensing his grief, and her handle shifted around to pat him softly on the shoulder. "Thanks girl," he said softly, and then shifted his attention back to his mother. "I'll bring you back, kaa-chan," he said, repeating the promise he always told her each time he visited.

He paused slightly, and then leaned down to kiss her forehead once more. "This time, I know it. Something's going to change, but I don't know what. I'll be able to bring you back soon, I can feel it in my bones."

He stood slowly from the bed, and made his way out of the room, resetting the trap-seals as he went. As he reached the surface, and the bright afternoon sun beat down on him, his eyes and expression hardened into the emotionless mask he showed to his enemies. He turned in the direction of the Land of Frost, and set out through Uzushio's ruins. He had several days of travel, and a traitor to catch, and he _wasn't_ going to let it keep him from visiting his sisters' and stepfather's memorials.

_**-oOo-**_

_**-oOo-**_

_**-oOo-**_

_**-oOo-**_

* * *

_**A/N: **__*Ducks rotten fruit* Please don't kill me, Kisame fans! He's one of my faves as well, but unfortunately he just had to go in this. Don't worry, as I mentioned earlier about flashbacks, we'll be seeing plenty of him in flashbacks in future chapters, and find out a bit more on how he and Naruto met and what happened with them to change things so drastically. I thought a Sempai-kōhai relationship (sort of like mentor/apprentice) fitted them the best, and again, more on that in the future._

_I wavered between giving Naruto Samehada, or giving him Hiramekarei (the flounder-shaped sword), but I think Samehada will end up giving the best plot potential (both with Naruto's own use of it, and the exploration of the Naruto/Kisame friendship)._

_So… Naruto's a Swordsman of the Mist, his sisters are still in Konoha and being watched over by a certain someone ;), Kushina's body is still being kept in good shape by Naruto, and he's managed to even find a bit of a ragtag family for himself. And yes, Haku is a girl in this universe, I don't care what Kishimoto says (Damn you Kishi and your traps! *shakes fist*)._

_As far as Orochimaru goes in the first part of the chapter, Kishi doesn't exactly have a very coherent timeline, and lots of times things seem to contradict, so I'm not really sure when Orochimaru left. If you go by Yamato's age, you could assume he left around 20 years before the start of the anime/manga. But if you look at what other things were said, it makes it seem like he was still in the village when Sarutobi chose Minato over him (one of the things he was bitter about) for Fourth Hokage, so it seems like he left sometime after that (and given it was Sarutobi that confronted him and not Minato, it's likely it happened after the Kyūbi attack). So, I'm using my author's license and going with him not yet having defected at the time of the Kyūbi attack, but something that would happen sometime after Jiraiya and sarutobi's conversation here._

_Next chapter, there'll be a decent amount of action as Naruto goes missing-nin hunting before his annual visit to his sisters' graves… where then finds out Konoha's dirty little secret. Until then, thanks for reading, and please leave your feedback!_


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